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Month: September 2007

“Roadblocks are simply shortcuts to something better than I had planned.”

Download an audio version of this affirmation set to music at The Affirmation Spot.

Today’s affirmation is a testament to our ability, indeed, our necessity to turn life’s obstacles into opportunities. There is an old saying that life is what happens to us on the way to our dreams. We think we are so smart and we have it all figured out and yet life, inevitably, throws us for a loop.

We have a choice. We can sit and pout because things didn’t turn out as we’d scripted them. Or, we can push forward with renewed determination.

Sometimes – as much as we hate to admit it – the universe’s wisdom or God’s is sounder than our own. The very thing that messed up our perfected plans can be the key that unlocks whole new possibilities.

However, we cannot find the key as long as we view the detour as a curse rather than as the blessing that it truly is.

May your day be filled with roadblocks ready to transform into shortcuts to your success and happiness.

“Leaders breathe life into the hopes and dreams of others and enable them to see the exciting possibilities that the future holds. Leaders forge a unity of purpose by showing constituents how the dream is for the common good. Leaders stir the fire of passion in others by expressing enthusiasm for the compelling vision of their group. Leaders communicate passion through vivid language and and expressive style.”

Like previous editions, the 4th edition of The Leadership Challenge is chalk-full of inspirational language and practical tools to develop your leadership skills. The two leadership experts share their the latest research and examples in a 25-year search to define the characteristics that transform ordinary people into extraordinary leaders.

The validity of their research has been tested across time and culture. It turns out that the factors that create a great leader are pretty universal, and thankfully, a learnable skill.

Their research-tested model (they have interviewed nearly 75,000 people over the years) continues to center on “The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership”:

Model the Way

Inspire a Shared Vision

Challenge the Process

Enable Others to Act

Encourage the Heart

The Five Practices are comprised of the “Ten Commitments of Leadership”:

Clarify values by finding your voice and affirming shared ideals.

Set the example by aligning actions with shared values.

Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities.

Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.

Search for opportunities by seizing the initiative and by looking outward for innovative ways to improve.

Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from experience.

Foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships.

The late mythologist Joseph Campbell coined this phrase to describe his vision of what our life here on this planet is all about. He presented it as a kind of simplified mission statement designed to awaken us to to remember our potential and pursue it.

Most of you had dreams at one point in your life. There was a career you dreamed of or a passion that we really wanted to pursue. At some point, you lost touch with that dream. “Reality” intervened. You started a family, you began a career, and your life became so busy that your dream began to fade away.

The more time that went by, the more unrealistic your dream appeared. You had “responsibilities” and your dream seemed a little selfish in the face of them.

Maybe the time has now come to “follow your bliss!” Maybe your life has cleared a bit and there is time to revisit your priorities, or perhaps life on the cubicle farm has become so painful that you are ready to make a change.

This article appeared on the Yahoo! front page back in 2007. It is about people just like you who decided to follow their bliss.

You can do it just like they did! If you can’t drop everything and pursue your dream right this minute, OK. But there is nothing to stop you from reacquainting yourself with it or taking a few positive steps in preparation today. Take one step towards your bliss today and another step tomorrow. Each day you will be a bit closer to chasing your dream.

In the meantime, you might also find your days more enjoyable and fulfilling knowing that you are taking positive steps towards achieving your dream.

When I talk to people about using positive affirmations I often encounter comments like, “Well, affirmations are OK, but they just won’t work for me,” or “I could never do that.”

I always think, “Did I just hear you right?” You just used a (negative) affirmation and proved your own point incorrect by demonstrating how successful that affirmation is for you. You believe you can’t do affirmations or that they would never work for you and your affirmation has come true!

Think about that for a moment. You think in affirmations all day long. You are constantly molding your experience of the world through a series of can/can’t are/aren’t statements in your mind (a.k.a. positive affirmations or negative affirmations). An affirmation, after all, is only a statement that you can/can’t accomplish something or that you are/aren’t capable.

I love reading articles by folks who say affirmations are a fraud, useless, or self-delusional (more affirmations). The kinds of affirmations you think have a pretty high correlation to the outcomes in your life. When you think in positive affirmations about something your attitude and your actions fall into line and you generally succeed. When we harbor and express negative beliefs about something failure is almost sure to follow.

Positive affirmations are not magic pills. They don’t change certain laws of physics. They cannot always impact the quantitative, but they can almost always improve the qualitative. For instance, a sixty year-old woman cannot affirm that she is twenty and wake up one morning 20 years old. However, the sixty year-old who affirms that she feels twenty is going to remain happy and active longer than someone who affirms all day how old they are becoming.

So, the questions really are these. If affirmations are just a fancy name for the kinds of thoughts we think all day, do you choose to think positively or negatively? Do you choose to believe you can or conclude we cannot?

You cannot prevent affirmations. They are an autonomic function of your mind. What you can control, though, is which kinds of affirmations you want to be pervasive in your life.

Whichever you choose, you will experience. Which will you choose today?

Many people think dreams are only experienced while we sleep. A few enlightened souls recognize that dreams happen only when we become fully awake.

Of course, your awakening occurs gradually over the course of your life or lives (depending on your belief). Some days it’s two steps forward and three steps back. Some days the chaos and the noise around you obscures the mountain summit where your dreams live.

However, the more you commit to your own awakening; the more you make it the focus of your life; the more clearly your dreams come into view and come to fruition.

Remember:

A dream fed is dream sped.

Feed a dream. Starve a doubt.

You may seem to be treading water, treading water, treading water, and then one day you realize you have slipped right into living your dream.

There is a kind of unconsciousness about the last step that allows you to ease right into a life you only, well, “dreamed” about.

Today, no matter what physical or psychological weather you face in your life; keep treading, keep dreaming, and stay focused. Your dreams can be yours.

Many years ago, my wife and I went for a walk along the lake in our little town. The nicest subdivision in town is next to the lake. We were looking at the houses, dreaming, and asking, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…?” We didn’t get up every day thinking about that dream. We got up and did the little things we needed to do to advance our careers and become the people we came here to be. We’d occasionally drive through the lake and say, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…?” Some have called this dream building. We kept planting that little seed and putting it out there into the Universe, without obsessing over it.

About five years later, we decided to buy a house in town. We were shocked and surprised to find that a house in the lake subdivision was open and that we were able to swing the payment. That little seed we had planted firmly in our unconscious minds five years before, as a dream, had come to fruition.

Sleep is for rest. Your dreams are meant to be experienced with eyes wide open. Go and live the life that wakes you up at two in the morning. It is waking you for a reason!

“Those who need my services are on their way to using them. I am thankful for the opportunity to serve them.”

Good Tuesday morning to everyone.

Stop. Look around you right now. Everything you see around you is there because someone somewhere sold something. Sales people, and their close cousins entrepreneurs, deal with a unique amount of rejection in their jobs.

To deal with it, they have developed aphorisms to stay motivated in the face of this constant negativity. One of my favorites is, “Some will, some won’t, so what!” I have no idea who coined the phrase, but it is ubiquitious and seems to sum up the mind set that a successful sales person must have to survive.

Now I know there are many burgeoning conscious business people who read this blog. Most of you are working to better the world through your products, services, or ideas. And as you venture out into the world, you are going to face many of the closing doors that other sales and business people face. Rejection can be very personal, especially when you believe the world is in desperate need of what you have to offer.

Some will. Some won’t. So what.

You are good with the “some will” part of the equation. The people who recognize the value of what you have to offer are obviously smart, evolved individuals. :o)

You may even understand that “some won’t”. It is the “so what” part that you have a hard time swallowing. What you are doing has so much meaning to you and could have such a positive impact on the world that you want everyone to benefit from it.

It’s easy to get stuck on why some people – sometimes those who need it most – refuse to see the value in what you have to offer.

You can invest a lot of energy wondering why “some won’t”, but all you really need is the wisdom to say, “so what!” It’s hard to do when you really believe in what you are doing.

Stop. Look around you again. All those things that someone sold to someone else began with an idea – an idea just like yours. In most cases, many people said no before someone said yes. Eventually, though, the right person said yes and the rest is history.

When you are bringing value to the world -and you know you are – the world will eventually say a giant “YES” to you.

In the meantime, take a page from the old sales sages and remember, “Some will, some won’t, so what!

“Just as the sun knows when to rise and the rose knows when to bloom, I will know when it is my moment to step forward and shine.”

There is almost no power, except yourself, that can limit your ability grow, advance, and succeed. That is precisely what we are all here to do and the process is as natural as the flow of nature. All we must do is believe and take action.

Today, remember who you truly are and why you’re truly here. Then believe and act on your belief. The results will shock you.

Follow your bliss. Experience your bliss. Become your bliss.

Ray Davis is the founder of The Affirmation Spot. He’s spent more than 25 years studying personal development and especially writing, recording, and using affirmations to achieve his goals. His eBook – The Power to Be You – offers 416 life-changing and original quotes, ideas, and affirmations to take you to new levels of achievement and reflection.